Reggio and Magna Grecia

Reggio - Reggio Calabria, capital of the province of the same name, is a city with a population of about 180 thousand inhabitants located at the southern end of the Calabrian peninsula, at the foot of the slopes of the terminal stretch of the Aspromonte, on the eastern side of the Strait of Messina. It was founded by the Greek colonists with the name of Rhegion in the VII century BC.

C. and over the centuries it went from being an ally of Rome to a city of the Byzantine Empire, then becoming the domain of Arabs, Normans, Swabians, Angevins and Aragonese, acquiring a rich and varied cultural, linguistic, customs and traditions dimension. The historical testimonies of Reggio are innumerable, and range from the Greek Walls, which date back to the 4th century BC. C, to the ancient Roman Baths, to the Aragonese Castle, built in the early Middle Ages to defend the population from Saracen raids, to Villa Genoese Zerbi, in Venetian style, periodic venue for exhibitions, to the Church of the Ottimati, dedicated to Santa Maria Annunziata, the whose red dome suggests its Byzantine origin, to the Cathedral of Maria Santissima Assunta in Cielo, dating back to the Middle Ages, completely destroyed by the 1908 earthquake and rebuilt in 1930 in Romanesque-Renaissance style. On the seafront, in front of the Arena, the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele III stands out on the pier of Porto Salvo to commemorate the point where the king landed on 31 July 1900. The city is home to the National Museum which houses, among other precious finds from Magna Graecia, the famous Riace Bronzes, two life-size warriors recovered from the surrounding seabed. From the food and wine point of view, in addition to the specialties offered by the sea and essential oils, a particular mention goes to the Bergamot Museum, a type of citrus fruit grown in the area between Villa San Giovanni and Gioiosa Ionica, between the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian. The background to this center rich in history is constituted by a turquoise sea, clear and uncontaminated, the undisputed destination of national and international tourism.